TROY, AL -- Facing elimination on the second day of action at the Atlantic Sun Conference Tournament in Troy, AL, Florida Atlantic University posted a 5-4 victory over Mercer University Friday evening. The win advances FAU to Saturday's championship round against Central Florida. FAU (40-26) must defeat UCF twice in order to win its seventh consecutive A-Sun Tournament title.

The big inning for FAU came in the seventh with the game tied at 3-3. Ginny Matthews doubled down the left field line to score Jaime Melton with the go-ahead run, and Pam Mazzarella followed with a single to score Matthews to make it 5-3.

Candice Freel came on in relief of Amanda Morin in the bottom of the seventh to pick up the save, allowing one run on one hit. She struck out Meghan Clark for the final out of the game.

Mercer (35-23) hurt itself early against the Lady Owls, committing five errors that resulted in FAU's first three runs being unearned.

FAU took a 1-0 lead in the third when, with one out, Ginny Matthews grounded out. However, Jessica Sachs, who was at second, scored on a throwing error by Meghan Clark at first trying to throw out Sachs at third.

It only got worse for the Bears in the fourth. Jenn Piazza led off with a single and advanced to second on a throwing error by the catcher. Jessica Braggins followed with an RBI-single to put FAU up 2-0. The Lady Owls scored their third run on a throwing error by the rightfielder.

The Bears came back with three runs against Morin in the sixth to tie the game at 3-3.

Morin picked up her 12th straight win and improved to 20-11 on the year. She allowed three runs on nine hits with three walks and three strikeouts. Freel picked up her third save in the process.

Florida Atlantic will face UCF Saturday at 2:00pm EDT. The Lady Owls lost to UCF earlier on Friday, 3-2, in eight innings. FAU advances to Saturday's championship round for the eighth consecutive season.